In the past, wireless communication systems primarily provided voice based services. To support voice based services, the systems used circuit switched connections. As the demand for data based services increases, wireless systems have been evolving towards using packet switched connections. Some systems use a totally packet switched network infrastructure. Although the air interfaces in most systems have some channels dedicated for supporting packet data, such as the common packet channel, typically, each user is typically assigned dedicated channels to support its communications. Other systems use fixed dedicated channels to support packet data.
Typically, to establish dedicated channels, a user requests a service, such as by sending a message over a random access channel. After the user requests the service, typically, dedicated uplink and downlink channels are established to support the services. After the service is completed, the channels are disestablished. Due to the bursty nature of packet based transmissions, the allocation of fixed dedicated channels to packet based services is an inefficient use of resources. The established dedicated channels are left idle prior to, after and between bursts.
Accordingly, it is desirable to have alternate approaches to supporting packet based services that allow rapid establishment and disestablishment of dedicated channels.